For a while I have been upgrading slow hard drives to SSD's but lately I have been wondering if there is something else out there that just has a larger amount of cache that can speed up a system without actually buying an SSD. Most of the typical systems seem to have a 500gb drive with around 8mb of cache. I don't need a one TB drive, typically I need a 200-300 mb drive but those all seem to be from the early 2000's era ( almost no cache at all).

Do you guys have any recommendations for smallish HDD's with decent speed? Should I just stick with my current plan of swapping in SSD's?

I have looked at the hybrid drives and they seem to be just about the same price point as SSD's. For a consumer laptop they might be great but in a business environment (no user files stored locally) they seem like a waste/poor choice. I will stick with the solid states.

Just installing windows 10 or installing office. Even OPENING outlook in cached mode can be a pain on an 8mb cache 5400rpm drive. I know an SSD makes it feel like a brand new machine and I was wondering if I was missing something obvious. I am the hero after upgrading to SSD but always looking for cheaper alternatives.

I have looked at the hybrid drives and they seem to be just about the same price point as SSD's. For a consumer laptop they might be great but in a business environment (no user files stored locally) they seem like a waste/poor choice. I will stick with the solid states.

Thanks guys!

I would argue that laptops are the worst environment for spinning drives. A pure SSD is going to be faster, use less power and be more shock resistant than a hard drive. That fits a laptop profile perfectly, as laptops are typically down on CPU/RAM, powered by a battery and moved/jostled while running, and laptop HDDs tend to be slower than even desktop HDDs.

Every situation can be different. I picked up an SSD/HD about three years ago at Best Buy by accident. Rather than go through the hassle of returning it, I just decided to keep it and install it in a ThinkPad I had laying around. It's the 1Tb model and for a guy like me that has probably 250G worth of ISO's alone, it's actually been a good fit. A 1T SSD back then would have been $500+, although certainly less than that now.

....pure SSD is going to be faster, use less power and be more shock resistant than a hard drive. That fits a laptop profile perfectly, as laptops are typically down on CPU/RAM, powered by a battery and moved/jostled while running, and laptop HDDs tend to be slower than even desktop HDDs.

Quality SSD brands (Micron, Samsung, etc) ought have a longer life.

Spinning drives are considered to be in the 3-5 year useful life range, whereas SSDs are projected to be in the 5-10 year life span range. Devices may last longer, but tendency is the overall hardware will otherwise feel old.

By all means, keep using that phrase, 'cuz it is funny! But, this is just a pet peeve of mine, as a reformed disk drive engineer. That term, "spinning rust" came from the fact that many years ago, the media actually was largely iron oxides... rust. But, that's been at least 20 years ago that the industry switched from oxide media to the shiny, plated media that you see today.

In fact, just to prove my HDD bona fides, I keep an old oxide disk on my wall... which proves nothing but that I'm getting old.

Speaking of old, anybody else remember the ironically named Brown Disk Manufacturing Company, out of Colorado Springs? I believe the founder of the company was actually named Mr. Brown, but we liked the humor.